FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TUITION - PAGE 3

Tuition at Delaware Valley College will go up $500 next year to help fund a $17 million budget adopted by the board of trustees. The increase means students will pay $8,225 a year. College President William H. Rorer III said some room rates will stay the same and others will go up $100 to $200 a year. Students also will pay $100 more for meals. The budget has a $450,000 deficit, which the college hopes to make up by monitoring spending. Rorer said he has told department managers to keep a close eye on costs.

After reading the story about Gov. Rendell's plan to legalize poker machines to provide college tuition assistance, I wondered what the true role of government should be. Gambling may be simply entertainment, but then why is it so strictly regulated? Pinball and trivia machines are free and can be accessed by anyone. It is the idea of "getting something for nothing" that is a very powerful drug. No one's problems can be solved by lucky, unearned money, and the state should not encourage it. Those lavish casinos are not built from winners, but from the losers.

Despite optimistic projections that tuition would remain stable, Northampton Community College trustees last night reviewed a final budget that calls for a $2-per-credit-hour increase for students. The $10,515,995 budget now goes to the sponsoring school districts for review. Five of the eight school districts must approve the budget for it to be adopted. The budget is based on 2,550 full-time equivalent students, 100 more than anticipated, because of the year's enrollment boon.

With state funding for Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities remaining flat, nearly 115,000 students will see tuition rise 3 percent when they return in August. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on Tuesday set in-state tuition for 2013-14 at $6,622 for the full academic year — up $194 from last year. Over the past decade, tuition at state-owned universities, which include Kutztown and East Stroudsburg, has risen about 44 percent. This year's jump, however, will not be enough to offset the roughly $56 million shortfall in the proposed PASSHE budget of about $1.6 billion.

A new state program will allow parents to prepay their children's tuition at Pennsylvania State University. With the Tuition Account Program (TAP), parents, grandparents and other family members can buy tuition credits now for future use at Penn State or the three other state-related, 14 state operated or 14 community colleges. The money parents spend to purchase the tuition credits will be invested by the state treasury. Credits are guaranteed to retain their value and to be available when requested by the parents.

Melissa A. Vargo, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Vargo of Salisbury Township, was recently named recipient of a merit scholarship to attend Lebanon Valley College, where she has been accepted for the fall semester. She will receive a Vickroy Scholarship paying one half of her tuition costs. The scholarship, awards merit scholarships providing one quarter, one third or one half of tuition costs, depending on the student's high school class rank.

The Easton Area School District has gone to court to get a Bethlehem Township couple to pay tuition for their son's 1987-88 education. Samuel and Judy Burgio of 3880 Greenwood Drive sent their son to Easton schools for the year, even though they were advised in the course of the year that as non-residents of the district, they would be subject to tuition payments. They persisted in sending the boy to the Easton school for the remainder of the year, but have so far failed to pay the $3,531 tuition the district says it is owed, according to a complaint filed by school district solicitor Elwood Malos.

Bucks County Community College trustees have adopted a $20.3-million budget for the 1987-88 school year that calls for a $4-per-credit tuition increase beginning with the summer session. Tuition will go from $40 to $44for each credit hour. The college last increased tuition 11 percent in 1984. Curt Yeske, a college spokesman, said the additional revenue is needed "because essentially 80 percent or more of the budget is fixed costs and they are all increasing." Because of insufficient enrollment in office administration, criminal justice, and speech, the trustees decided to cut one faculty member in each area.

Students attending Allentown College of St. Francis De Sales will face increases of $350 for tuition and $140 for room and board during the 1986-87 school year. The 7.07 percent tuition hike will raise the current $4,950 yearly tuition to $5,300. Room and board will go up to $3,080 a year - a 4.76 percent rise. "Good financial stewardship, a reduced rate of inflation and increasing donor generosity have enabled the college to keep increases at this modest level and to hold our student fees below the average for private liberal arts colleges across the country," wrote the Rev. Daniel G. Gambet, college president, in a letter to students' parents.